What a hell of a lot of jobs must have been lost with the advent of plastic in cars; worked in the plating shop as part of my engineering apprenticeship... skilled work there, and also from the polishing shop people who brought it all to glossy life.

amolitor

Nicely done, classic "portrait of a car" framing, great detail through and a nice subject. Some weenies would no doubt bitch about the flat shadows and blown highlights, but I don't give a damn about them, the tonal range is interesting and well handled. I find the light a little flat and dull, which actually might work fine with the subject -- it does create a sort of atmosphere of tiredness, which might be what you were going for.

If I were a car guy, I think this photo would speak to me a bit more. I might feel the car's story somehow, in its imperfections and age, the way I might feel the subject's story and life in a portrait of an old man. If I felt that, light would probably work for me as well. But, I'm not a car guy, so I don't really get that. For me, there's very little emotional depth to this photo, it's pretty much just the actuality of the subject. A picture of a car.

You know, it's something to do with a lost generation, a time past when there were dreams that came true, when as in the 60s, too, things - anything - seemed possible even when they didn't come true.

You had to live there and see those cars to understand. No number of pictures will really put you into the ethos, but I just made it: I didn't live in the States, but in India, and there were some wonderful American cars there in the early fifties; the magazines were mostly from the U.S. as were all the movies and the music coming out of Radio SEAC and, later, Radio Ceylon as it became. So in some ways, my childhood was one filled and fuelled by U.S. influences and precious little of the U.K.

Seeing those cars in the flesh, so to speak, has an impact that images can't: with pix you miss the personal confrontation which, of course, was what the statement being made was all about. A pity that even the U.S. lost all of that and went on to produce bland blancmanges instead.

The Shelby don't need no stinkin' bumpers, man!But the photo needs a sound track of the wonderful, throbbing rumble of the engine!!!

Back in "the day" I had friends that raced sports cars on the amateur Sports Car Club of America circuit, and I photographed the races at Thompson, Connecticut, for the local racing rag "Pit Talk." That was way back when you could tell car makes apart.

The Shelby don't need no stinkin' bumpers, man!But the photo needs a sound track of the wonderful, throbbing rumble of the engine!!!

Back in "the day" I had friends that raced sports cars on the amateur Sports Car Club of America circuit, and I photographed the races at Thompson, Connecticut, for the local racing rag "Pit Talk." That was way back when you could tell car makes apart.Eric

That's what's so damned sad: all that personality has vanished into a sea of conformity. No wonder I stick funny plates on my little cars; I feel I'm positively drowning, suffocating in a sea of anonymity: even people look, sound, write, dress and act as members of some goddamned indentikit society. Music, movies, cameras, tv shows - it's all a dull, flat and anodyne world of be-alikes. My old mother would have despaired of this post-millennium world - in fact, I believe that she eventually did.

Sadly, I suspect that it'll be just a little bit beyond my reach... but were it not, it might make a great deal of sense: non-rusting construction and down-handable for generations! (Just like a Rolex, but keep that quiet!) In the end, a good accountant could convince one's wife that it is a great buy that'll pay for itself over time. Not necessarily the buyer's time, but with inflation considered, certainly within grandchild time.

The shape of the rear reminded me at once of early-fifties Studebaker, the first time I noticed a going-both-ways-at-once styling, where the front and the rear looked equally aerodynamic: you looked able to go in reverse as rapidly as forward. They didn't last, though, Stoodies. Oddly, the Bufori trunk looks unnaturally small as it lies within those broad hips. Hmmm... But to be realistic, how bulky do your credit card wallets need to be?

Not that I can think of any car company that did this sort of brave thing, but I wonder if Cadillac could put out the '59 again and make a profit from it? Obviously, I mean within the same skin but with fresh engineering 'solutions' (engaging use of terminology, 'solutions', used nowadays for everthing, from shopping trolleys, through photographer's ads to bank loans) designed to make the most of disc brakes etc. Perhaps even Jauguar could consider the E-Type a suitable candidate for fresh release. Might screw the used-car market, but that market doesn't help the makers very much: can't bank reputation/faded glories!